Meet the 18-year-old environmental activist fighting air pollution in Punjab

Winner of Let Me Breathe’s Clean Air Punjab Competition, Akshyae Singh, talks about the discourse around pollution

Akshyae Singh is excited about his first-place win in the . He talks of the need to keep the planet safe, but he immediately zeroes in on the the value of keeping the planet safe for the next generation that has not been as much of a priority for decades because “it all comes down to the bigger picture. It is important to recognise the next generation’s right to a cleaner world and can be done by analysing the consequences of ignoring that right.” The competition held across February and March 2021 was put together by Let Me Breathe, a Delhi-based organisationthat provides space for people to document stories of living and surviving air pollution and climate change. The space also allows for positive stories on sustainability. The Clean Air Punjab Competition aimed to address a staggering number of deaths as a consequence of unbreathable air. According to Global Burden of Disease Study 2019, air pollution led to 41,090 deaths in Punjab just that year alone.